Silver is trading at $31.80/oz, €24.52/oz and £19.95/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,590.25/oz, palladium at $605.25/oz and rhodium at $1,125/oz.

Gold climbed $6.40 or 0.37% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,728.50. Silver hit a high of $32.434 and finished trading with a gain of 1%.

Gold edged down on Tuesday, in tandem with equities that relinquished gains, however demand from jewellers supported prices as investors await the policy statement from the US Federal Reserve meeting to be released on Wednesday at 18:15 GMT.

No major announcements are expected to come out of the meeting. Last month the Fed committed to hold rates low even after the economic recovery has strengthened. This was the signal that indicated it will continue intervening until the economy grows fast enough to decrease US unemployment sharply.

The euro remained firm against the dollar as the market expects Spain to apply for a bailout within the next month. Now that Spain’s regional elections are complete and with Spain’s Prime Minister Rajoy’s People’s Party winning 41 out of 75 seats in the Galician assembly this affirmed the approval of financial austerity measures and paves the way for a formal bailout from the EU.

Spain's central bank announced this morning that the Spanish economy contracted at a faster pace in Q3 (1.7% vs. 1.3%) and that the country may miss its budget-deficit target because of tax-revenue shortfalls.

In India, demand for the yellow metal climbed overnight after a rebound in the rupee discounted prices by 1%.

German Federal auditors handed in a report slamming the Bundesbank for not inspecting their foreign held gold reserves to verify their book value.

The report says the gold bars "have never been physically checked by the Bundesbank itself or other independent auditors regarding their authenticity or weight." Instead, it relies on "written confirmations by the storage sites."

The lion’s share of Germany's gold reserves (nearly 3,400 tons estimated at $190 billion) are housed in vaults of the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Bank of France since the post-war days, when they were worried about a Cold War Soviet invasion.

The Bundesbank stated, “There is no doubt about the integrity of the foreign storage sites in this regard".

In contrast with best industry practices Germany’s gold reserves do not seem to be independently verified by a third party.

Philipp Missfelder, a politician from Merkel’s own party, has asked the Bundesbank for the right to view the gold bars in Paris and London, but the central bank has denied the request, citing the lack of visitor rooms in those facilities, German’s daily Bild reported.

The Bundesbank won't let German parliament members inspect the German gold vaulted abroad because the central bank vaulting facilities supposedly lack "visiting rooms." And yet one of those vaults, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, offers the public tours that include "an exclusive visit to the gold vault".

With German elections around the corner (and this a politically sensitive issue) the central bank decided last month to repatriate about 50 tons of gold per year over the next 3 years from New York to its headquarters in Frankfurt for "thorough examinations" regarding weight and quality, the report revealed.

The auditor’s report stated that the German Central Bank’s gold in London has dropped "below 500 tons" due to recent sales and repatriations, but it did not specify how much gold was held in the U.S. and in France. German media have widely reported that some 1,500 tons — half of their total is stored in New York.

The lack of an announcement of the sale of the German gold in London suggests that the sale was actually part of a gold swap with another central bank -- like the New York Fed. The only question is the lack of transparency surrounding the fall in London. Was German gold sold at the behest of the US and in exchange Germany took title to US gold vaulted in the New York? Or was title to gold supposedly vaulted in the United States?

German economists have led a rally to “bring home our gold” and the news article listed below was circulated by the AP.

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This topic is very interesting. What apparently is happening is that this growing distrust by the global economy. Those with large quantities of gold, want to have that gold under his direct control. Why? The global economic downturn could jeopardize national security of each country individually. Has begun to emerge a certain distrust among major economies. This leads me to think of two issues: first, it is likely that the global economic downturn is much higher than initially estimated. Second, the price of gold will rise to unthinkable levels.

My guess is that the physical gold of the world has been rehypothicated so many times that no one knows who actually owns what. Everyone who thinks they own gold should ask for delivery. Let price discovery reign.

Bob Pisanai showed us all the gold in the Western banking system already. Germany should just give up. They should pin all their hopes on debt backed fiat paper and the US government's ability to maintain a gold price of $42 an ounce. This is the plan that has been working so far. Full steam ahead.

"The Bundesbank won't let German parliament members inspect German gold ...because... lack "visiting rooms." ..yet one of those vaults, the Federal Reserve... offers ..public tours that include "an exclusive visit to the gold vault".

Bundesbank caught telling a whopper of a porky

Bernanke can't even lie properly (professionally?) he's so inept

These central bwankers are crones and weasels, without competition to weed out the garbage from the good the monopoly mechanism ensures the most dumbest and corrupt scum rises to the top

German MP's should take the Tour at the Fed, then return home with a demand for Bundesbank sackings for deceipt. If you want an audit (ie. to find the truth) the last thing you'll stomach is being told a pack of lies

Crusty, of course a German MP cannot audit the Gold while strolling around the Feds vaults as a tourist ...but the Bundesbanks porky was there's no visitor facilities when clearly some have them set-up

the Fed must be able to audit their holdings, as any central bank would also, so the Bundes-bullshitters should be hung out to dry on this one

I suspect that they will find that the gold has been taken by an islamic militant group (they left a ransom note) suspected to be based in Iran.

They cannot afford to cut military spending so they will have to find something for those boys to do. It is thier patriotic duty to attach people who don't like us.

Romney actually said last night that he would seek to remove the government in Syria and replace it with one that is "friendly" to the us. I know many will not understand what is wrong with that and not that Obama toook issue with that - I think he was trying to interrupt saying "Pick me, I hated them first."

"Yes, we do have room to move pallets of gold weighing tons, but unfortunately we do not have the room for a tea caddy, therefore you may not visit and verify your holdings. Viewing your holdings without tea is uncivilized and we apologize for any inconvenience you may incur from our policy."

As far as i know from all the ZH responders is that all that rerererehypotheked gold is somewhere at the bottom of lakes or oceans due to boating accidents. As far from the ocean stockpile that should be recycled in one of the geolocical troghs so it can be mined again an added to the above the ground storage, which can grow in this manner. Problem with limited amounts solved.

In response to public pressure, the Bundesbank, the German central bank, now wants to bring "parts" of Germany’s gold reserves home and verify their authenticity. Is fear rife in Frankfurt of counterfeit gold bars from the USA which are actually made of tungsten?

For each single ounce of physical silver and gold taken off the market, the government supported banksters, under the guise of national security, need to fabricate 100 ounces of paper promises in order to keep the price artificially suppressed. Truth is in the air - dare to inhale, and TAKE DELIVERY.

If all the possible fraud around gold were to burst on a large cummulative scale it would probably turn out to be the biggest firework the world has ever seen. I can imagine how the banksters are scared to death of possible revelation. Large amount of gold is constantly being swapped or leased yet registered in the books as being in possession of lender banks.

100% of the supposed "German Gold" has been stolen. If Germany had even the slightest prudence (as Germans are reported to have in spades), they would demand all their gold be returned to Germany. That they do not demand their gold be returned is proof positive that the predators-DBA-banksters already know the gold has been stolen and sold to hold down the price of gold.

The gold is gone. All of it.

PS: Germany could boost their economy dramatically simply by demanding all their gold back. Since their gold was sold long ago, the predators who are supposedly holding it would need to go into the physical market to replace it. Does anyone know how much the price of gold would have to become to purchase 8000 tons all at once? Gold would be $10,000 per ounce in days. Which means, the newly purchased gold Germany would receive would be worth 7x the current price. Nice! A cool trillion dollars profit simply by saying "give me back my gold".